A HARD-DRINKING cabbie in the North-East has been held up by the Government's Chief Medical Officer as an example of how boozy Britain is heading for disaster.

Professor Liam Donaldson highlighted the regional differences in drinking habits with his experience of arriving to work in the North-East 15 years ago when he asked a taxi driver how much he drank.

Prof Donaldson said: "He told me that he drank in moderation. I had only been in the North-East about five days and I asked him, 'How much?"

"He said, 'Well, I drink about ten pints a night and probably about 30 at the weekend'."

Prof Donaldson was launching his annual report for 2001, called On The State of Public Health.

He warned young people that they could face an early grave unless they curbed the menace of binge drinking.

What is particularly alarming is the increase in heavy drinking by young women.

"This is not a moral message, but it is a warning to young people that, if this pattern of drinking is established over several years, then they will be the liver transplants or even the liver deaths at an early age in the future," he said.

Figures in the report show that in 2000, cirrhosis of the liver killed more men than Parkinson's disease and more women than cervical cancer.

There were large rises in death rates from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis among most age groups.

In the 35 to 44-year-old range there was an eight-fold increase in men and nearly a seven-fold increase in women.

Last year, cirrhosis accounted for nearly 500 deaths in men aged 25 to 44 years and nearly 300 women of this age group.

The report highlights rising trends in deaths from cirrhosis in England in comparison to the rest of the European Union.

Prof Donaldson has accepted an invitation to speak at a conference on alcohol to be held in the region next summer.

Professor Nick Heather, of Northumbria University, said the conference would consider whether more could be done to advise women, in particular, to stop binge drinking.